And the Rockets' Red Glare. Splodey Heads Keep 'Splodin'!

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog's Favourite Living Canadian)

"My judgment approves this measure and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life I am willing to stake on it. And I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration."

—John Adams, future vice-president of the United States, to the Second Continental Congress, July 1, 1776.

Sometimes, 140 years later, I believe we don't deserve even the fireworks.

***

Sometimes, the Friday news dump is just indecent. The Administration admits, on the Friday before the biggest holiday weekend of the summer, that our drone war in distant lands may well have killed 116 peoplewho had nothing to do with any kind of war anywhere? And that probably isn't even all of them? They all have kids or nephews or uncles or brothers or sisters, You think those folks are going to look kindly on us, ever? Jesus.

***

Ari Berman of The Nation has been the go-to source on all things voter-suppression ever since Chief Justice John Roberts declared the Day Of Jubilee in Shelby County v. Holder. In declaring the Day Of Jubilee, Roberts wrote the following to lead off his majority opinion:

But history did not end in 1965. By the time the Act was reauthorized in 2006, there had been 40 more years of it. In assessing the "current need[]" for a preclearance system that treats States differently from one another today, that history cannot be ignored. During that time, largely because of the Voting Rights Act, voting tests were abolished, disparities in voter registration and turnout due to race were erased, and African-Americans attained political office in record numbers. And yet the coverage formula that Congress reauthorized in 2006 ignores these developments, keeping the focus on decades-old data relevant to decades-old problems, rather than current data reflecting current needs.

Two things need to be distinctly understood here: 1.) John Roberts is not an idiot. He knew full well what the consequences of this decision would be, and 2.) John Roberts didn't care and, perhaps, beneath his robes, gave a solemn little golf clap at what ensued after this decision, since he'd dedicated his entire legal career to shredding the accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement, especially in this area.

So, anyway, Berman went out to Wisconsin to see how the Day Of Jubilee was going. What he brought back is a real Independence Day treat for all of us. From The Nation:

In fact, many Wisconsinites who didn't have Johnson's help or Hatten's perseverance were blocked from the polls. Their experiences offered a striking rejoinder to Governor Scott Walker's contention that the state's voter-ID law "works just fine." Eddie Lee Holloway Jr., a 58-year-old African American who had moved from Illinois to Milwaukee, brought his expired Illinois photo ID, birth certificate, and Social Security card to get a photo ID for voting, but the DMV rejected his application because his birth certificate read "Eddie Junior Holloway," the result of a clerical error. Holloway spent $200 on a bus ticket to Illinois to try to amend his birth certificate and made seven trips to government agencies in two different states, but he still couldn't vote in the Wisconsin primary. To date, the state's DMV has rejected nearly a fifth of all applicants for a voter ID, 85 percent of whom were African American, Latino, or Native American. "This is the worst election I've ever seen in Wisconsin," said Johnson, who's lived in Milwaukee her whole life. "I go to bed thinking we've settled something, and I wake up and there's something else."

This law is working the way it was designed to work because Roberts' decision in Shelby County is working exactly the way it was designed to work.

***

Friday was the 78th birthday of the indefatigable Diane Ravitch, stalwart crusader for the survival of public education in the United States. She sent out a birthday message to her fans and, as the son of a man who spent 35 years in public secondary education, I think you should consider taking her up on what she suggests that you do.

If you want to do something for me other than say "happy birthday" (which is also nice), please join and/or make a gift of any size to theNetwork for Public Education or the NPE Action Fund, which engages in political action. I co-founded these groups with Anthony Cody, and we hope NPE will be the meeting plac e for all those who are sick of attacks on public schools and teachers, for all those who want to sing the praises of a great democratic public education system that is required by law to provide equal opportunity for all students. We want a transformation, not the status quo. We want great schools for every child, not just for the few. And we won't tolerate the naysayers who pick on the people, institutions, and values we hold dear.

And I would pay a good sum to have been a fly on the wall in the offices of the student newspaper at Wellesley when she and Nora Ephron were on staff.

To Infinity And Beyond: Notes From My Favorite Machine: You see, galaxies completely depend on how you look at them They can be pancake galaxies that, from the right angle, and from a mere 82 million light-years distant, look like god's own holiday sparklers. Per Time:

Hubble captured this image of dwarf galaxy Kiso 5639 in a firestorm of star birth. Although the galaxy is actually pancake-shaped, from our perspective it resembles a rocket streaking across the sky (because it's tilted). The bright pink glow at one end of the galaxy comes from new stars lighting up clouds of hydrogen gas. The more subdued tail end also contains star forming regions, thought to be older than those in the head.

The greatest thing in writing about the Hubble is that, in all seriousness, you can use a phrase like "a firestorm of star birth."

Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here are some American soldiers in London, celebrating the Fourth of July during World War I, a development that the Founders would have thought completely ridiculous. The Man On The White Horse, famed in song, story, and conservative politics, makes a brief appearance. History is so cool.

Scientists recently discovered a pair of dinosaur wings with feathers preserved in Burmese amber, according to a research article published in Nature Communications. The 99 million-year-old wings are believed to come from the enantiornithes, a type of flying dinosaur with claws or teeth in its wings. The wings getting trapped in tree sap, and eventually becoming amber, proved to be a better way of fossilization compared to other common processes. They were so well preserved that scientists were able to compare the feathering to that of modern birds — proving that it's very similar. The paper suggests that the prehistoric wings have the same structures, coloring and feather layouts as those of modern-day birds. They also have the same shades of brown, black and white when placed under the microscope.

Wings with teeth! Yet more proof that dinosaurs lived then to make us happy now.

This week's Top Commenter of The Week is something of an upset. I thought for sure the judges would pick someone from the thread about He, Trump in front of the pile of trash, or at least someone cracking wise about Boris Johnson's hair. But, no, the comments on the Texas couple whose idea of "homeschooling" didn't involve school, because Jesus is coming back soon anyway, and in which a family dispute over a motorcycle repair shop figured prominently, turned out to be the prize. I thought it might go to Top Commenter Steve Martin for cueing up the Moby Grape classic "Motorcycle Irene."

A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron." - the ghost of Horace Mann, haunting a Harley shop in El Paso...

Classic reference with an eye to economic security in his old age – 88.32 Beckhams to you, good sir.

I'll be back on Tuesday with the regular riffs. (There will be something on Monday in order of the Glorious Fourth.) Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line and lift a glass to freedom and its expansion to all people. Eat some ribs, too.

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